


tony stark is peter parker's safe space

by casual irondad (Padfootastic)



Series: peter's one badass mf [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (also yes i call it spidey sense sUE ME), BAMF Peter Parker, Embarrassed Peter Parker, Gen, Protective Tony Stark, Spidey Sense (Marvel), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, also peter is too shy, especially around his mR sTaRk, god i love these two with everything in me, hes always a badass, just his general existence ykno?, no beta we die like men, oh wait i forgot the main tag, or rather his spidey sense is, peter just loves him too much, the kid doesnt even need to do anything, tony is an oblivious idiot who immediately jumps to the worst case, tony thinks peters broken, too bad hes wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22894030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padfootastic/pseuds/casual%20irondad
Summary: Where it's been weeks and Tony's running himself ragged worrying about Peter's 'broken' spidey senses, and gets quite a shock when he finds out the truth.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: peter's one badass mf [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1613317
Comments: 19
Kudos: 742





	tony stark is peter parker's safe space

**Author's Note:**

> the one w the horrendous titles is back. bet u didnt miss me  
> 'm so sorry u had to see that w ur own two eyes *huides behind fingers* 
> 
> ab this, can u tell i adore peter and tony? because i do. so much. 
> 
> also uh forget beta. this thing is literally the first draft. hasnt even gone thru a grammarly check (yes i know im a heathen) because i havent slept in over 20 hours and i absolutely cannot edit this. i do not have the brain cells. so if u see anything weird, leave a prayer and move on. thx.

Tony Stark hated a lot of things- being handed things, having to wait, vegetarian burgers (seriously, those were an affront to the culinary world), someone not paying attention to him (there were...some daddy issues there but he really didn’t want to go there), pickles, the list was really long. What can he say, he was an opinionated man. 

But if there was one thing he truly and unequivocally hated, it was feeling confused. It didn’t happen often, so when it did, the experience left him feeling just a little shaken. As if not all was right. Which it wasn’t. Because Tony Stark being confused was a very rare occurrence. 

Ever since he could remember, he was always the smartest person in the room. While his dad was miles ahead of everyone else, he wasn’t a certifiable genius. Tony was. Which meant he wasn’t just miles, but  _ lightyears  _ ahead of everyone. 

This meant that being confused wasn’t something he was used to. If there was something he didn’t know, he’d just read about it. It was easy enough. He wasn’t kidding when he said he’d become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics overnight. Most things weren’t all that challenging for him, hence why he had such a short attention span, and hardly had patience for  _ people.  _ Not when machines could offer him much more of a challenge. (that was also the reason why his extremely short list of trusted people were all those who could keep up with him in some way) 

Tony remembers one thing that always managed to trip him up. People, and emotions. Now there’s something that baffled him half the time. He liked living life in a sort of methodical manner. Most people would scoff at that. They’d balk at the thought of calling him methodical, or neat, or organized. But they didn’t know how he worked. His brain was constantly looking for problems, glitches, errors, and simultaneously coming up with solutions. He discarded hundreds of ideas everyday. He almost never left things to chance, constantly running numbers and percentages. Which, obviously, didn’t work for humans, who were unpredictable and frustrating and never stood still long enough for Tony to get an idea of how they worked. 

So he maintained his distance, never really got too close. Hard to feel confused about something if you didn’t care about it too much, huh? And yet, there were some who broke through that. Who managed to wrangle their way under his defences. 

However, if one looked closely, they’d see a pattern there. It was subtle, but it was there. 

Colonel James Rhodes was a military man, he was practically born for that lifestyle. He had a fixed schedule, and he hated going off track. Probably the most unpredictable aspect of his life was Tony himself and he was happy to keep it to that. He liked mapping things out, following orders and lists. 

Happy Hogan, (fore)head of security, was equally predictable in his work. He had a set of duties, and he had performed them well. Simple. He took the greatest pride in ensuring his job was well done, and it showed. 

And of course, Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. Every second of her day was meticulously planned. She couldn’t afford not to. She’d always thrived with boundaries and rules. Unlike everyone else, they didn’t stifle her, but they let her grow. 

So yes, while all of them gave Tony a challenge, they also made him feel secure. They were predictable, in a sense. They were comforting. He could be sure around them. 

Which was what made Peter Parker so much more of an anomaly. 

The boy was _annoyingly, infuriatingly, and maddeningly_ _unpredictable._ Tony hated it (he really didn’t, but he wished he could) because it left him feeling out of his element a lot, which was, as previously mentioned, something he intensely disliked. Half the time Tony didn’t even know what he was doing with the young boy. The other half he constantly worried about the effect his presence would have. No one would dare call Tony Stark a good role model, especially not for young, impressionable teens. He was constantly worried about messing up and ruining Peter’s life (Howard Stark’s voice was never far from his thoughts. Even in death, it seemed like the man particularly liked making Tony’s life hell). It was like walking around on eggshells, waiting for the first chance he’d mess up. (Not that he hasn’t messed up already: the ferry and Toomes come to mind immediately) 

So yeah. Peter Parker confused Tony Stark. He was unlike anyone Tony had spent any extended amount of time with. There was a lot going on there. For one, the kid’s unconditional adoration. Even though they’ve been spending time for months now, and have gotten much closer than they used to be, Peter still looked at him like he hung the stars and the moon in the sky. He truly believed Tony could do no wrong (He was scared of the day the kid would realize that wasn’t true and stopped looking at him like that). And his loyalty. God, the kid was unfailingly loyal. It scared Tony because he constantly worried he’d misuse his trust and loyalty one day. 

All of this wasn’t new. Tony had known for a long time that Peter Parker was not the kind of person he usually liked to be with. He’d put up the walls around himself for a reason, and they’d never failed him until now. Well, not  _ too  _ much. But they worked. And that was enough. So it surprised him when Peter’s entry in his life didn’t...bother him. In fact, it reached such a stage that Tony actually became very attached to the kid. Almost in a paternal way?

But that wasn’t possible. Tony Stark wasn’t a paternal dude, anyone could tell you that. But alas, it was just another thing to add to his annoyingly long list of confusions when it came to the young spider. 

All of that aside, however, he had a very concrete issue pressing on his mind right then. It wasn’t an existential crisis this time (though Lord knows he has enough of those!). This time, he was worried, and more than a bit confused(a very common combination of emotions to feel around the kid, Tony thought), about Peter’s actions. Or lack thereof.

Lately, Tony had noticed a kind of disturbing trend. 

Peter’s spidey sense was always on high alert ( _ my senses are constantly dialed up to eleven, Mr. Stark!)  _ which meant he always knew who was around him. He could identify a person by their breathing alone, and even their heartbeat if they were close enough. That was why it was close to impossible to prank the kid. If he could avoid bullets raining down upon him, then he definitely knew about the bucket on top of the door before it could even fall. (Tony was still recovering from his embarrassment of having one of his own pranks turned on him, when Peter had managed to get him under the bucket instead of himself somehow)

His constant awareness meant that he was never surprised. Which was Tony’s present concern. In the past few days, whenever he’d seen the spiderkid, he’d always have to call him, sometimes more than once. And every single time Peter had appeared surprised, as if he hadn’t known Tony was there. Which shouldn’t have been possible. Peter always knew. 

And then the other day, he remembered trying to scare Peter. A task, which by all means, was  _ impossible.  _ And yet, when Tony jumped out from behind the kitchen counter with a clown mask on his face, Peter had yelped and jumped so high that he actually got stuck on the ceiling. In the moment, Tony had almost died laughing. The sound Peter had made was one of the funniest things he’d heard (he had told FRIDAY to send the recording to his phone and if he watched it on repeat when he had a bad day, well, no one had to know) and him sticking on to the roof was just the cherry on top of the cake. 

But later, after the whole scene was over, and Peter was grumbling threats under his breath, something niggled at the back of his mind. It wasn’t until much later, close to when he was about to sleep, that he realized what the problem was. 

How could Peter not know Tony was there? 

It took another incident in the same week for Tony to start considering that something might be wrong with Peter’s sixth sense. 

It happened when they were in the gym, just going over some offensive moves. While Peter was great at defence, knowing all the tips and tricks to keep himself safe, he was much less proficient at attacking. It stemmed from his constant need to protect, to not hurt anyone, and while the amount of goodness this boy had in him sometimes made Tony’s heart ache, it was also important that he knew some of that stuff. It could save his life someday. He couldn’t just rely on his speed and web shooters all the time. 

And so they’d started sparring, nothing too heavy in the beginning. After a while however, Tony decided to play a little dirty. He’d justified it to himself by arguing that Peter had his sixth sense so if Tony wanted to get a hit on him, he’d have to try some unconventional methods. Not that he thought anything would work, but it was worth a try. 

So he searched for an opening, and when Peter had bounced back on his heels for a second, Tony striked. He feigned going to the left, and at the last second, changed directions and charged straight towards Peter’s nose. The face was always off limits but he figured that Peter would just catch the punch, as he always did. 

Except, he didn’t. 

Tony’s hand went flying forward until it connected with Peter’s nose and a sickening crunch could be heard across the room. Just like before, Tony didn’t notice the  _ underlying  _ issue at the time, and went straight to horror at the current situation. 

“Oh god, Peter, I, I didn’t think-I’m, God, Kid, I’m so sorry,” he had rambled, horrified that he’d hurt the kid. 

Peter, for his part, just waved him off with a laugh. “It’s no problem, Mr. Stark. My fault for not catching it. Don’t worry, this’ll heal before dinner. It’s just one of those injuries that looks worse than it really is, trust me.” 

It didn’t stop Tony from feeling like utter crap throughout the day, causing Peter to try and cheer him up, which ultimately just made him feel worse because he didn’t deserve that. It was after Peter left, however, and Tony was alone with his thoughts that he went through everything that had happened. 

And that’s when he came to the conclusion that Peter’s Spidey-sense must be broken, because what other explanation could there be? 

So with that thought in mind, he decided he’d go and talk to Peter about this. He was a little upset that Peter hadn’t come to him on his own (because there was no way he wouldn’t know, right?) but he figured the kid was just freaked out and needed time to think it through himself. Tony could certainly understand that. 

But he still wanted to see if he could help somehow, which required him to actually bring the topic up. He decided he’d do it the next time they were having a movie night. 

* * *

The next time happened to be a whole week later, in which time Tony saw his hypothesis being proven right multiple times. By now, he was almost sure something was wrong and couldn’t wait to talk to Peter. 

And so along came Friday and with it, movie night. All the supplies were ready- popcorn, chocolate, soda, ramen noodles (Peter was a little obsessed)- and the movie was all queued up. 

Before they started, though, Tony wanted to get this off his chest. 

“Hey, Pete?” 

“Hm, Mr. Stark?” 

“Is, uh, is everything okay?” Well, that wasn’t vague at all. Nice job, genius. 

Peter blinked in confusion. “Uh, yeah? Why wouldn’t it be?” 

Tony shrugged, trying to appear casual (and failing miserably). “Nothing much. Just, uh, just wanted to check up on you.” 

He could see Peter just staring at him for a few seconds before he gave up on facing the television altogether and just turned towards Tony, suspicion in his eyes. 

“Yeah, no. You’re not fooling anyone with that. Tell me what’s up.” When did the kid get so demanding? He certainly didn’t remember that happening. He voiced as much, only to get an unimpressed look in return. 

“Stop changing the subject, Mr. Stark. Did Aunt May say anything to you? Because I haven’t done anything recently, you know. I’ve been eating meals regularly, not staying out past curfew, and I’m even back on a semi-regular sleep schedule, which is actually saying something. So spill.” 

Tony blew out a breath, trying to buy himself a few more seconds. Why was he drawing this out so much anyway? It’s not like it was particularly embarrassing or anything. Sure, a bit worrying, but nothing that should cause him to react like this. (He just didn’t want to admit to himself that he was scared- and a bit hurt- at why Peter didn’t come to him on his own, and he wasn’t sure he would like the answer) 

“Mr Sta-” Peter started impatiently, but Tony cut him off. He could do this. 

“Yeah, yeah, kid, I’m getting to it. I was just a bit...concerned about your abilities.” Goddammit, he still couldn’t say it outright, could he? 

Now Peter just looked even more confused, “My abilities?” 

“Yeah, you know, the mutant powers? Radioactive spider? Icky Oscorp? Ring a bell, Pete?” 

Said teen rolled his eyes (the sass was killing him!), “No, how could I remember the single most life changing event that has happened to me, Mr. Stark?” He ignored the  _ ‘Hey, I thought that was meeting me _ ’ and went on. “I was just wondering what you meant. As far I know, they’ve never been better. In fact, they’re working a little too well; just the other day, one of my assignments got stuck to my hand as I was submitting it to the teacher. Luckily she was a bit distracted or that would’ve been really awkward.” 

Tony blinked, “Well, that certainly wasn’t what I was talking about. I meant more your, uh, spidey-sense?” 

“God, that’s a terrible name for it,” Peter muttered under his breath before raising his voice, “What about it?” 

“Is it, like, working properly? Everything in order? No delays or lags or anything?” 

“Mr. Stark, it’s not a robot in need of maintenance, you know. Doesn’t really need a part change and oil touchups,” Peter joked. 

“No, because I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide it from me if it’s not really...doing it’s thing. We can figure out a solution together. No shame there,” Tony was using his gentlest voice (he didn’t even know it existed until Peter entered his life and made a complete sap out of him)

Peter straightened up and crossed his arms at that, “Alright, Mr. Stark. I’m really,  _ really  _ confused now. You’re gonna have to be clearer than that. My spidey-sense is working perfectly fine; I’d know since I was patrolling just yesterday and avoided a bullet because of it.” 

For the sake of his own sanity, he decided not to dwell on the bullet part, and addressed the rest of it, confusion now coloring his own tone as well. 

“B-But, I could’ve sworn there was something wrong. You’ve been acting differently the past few weeks, Pete, and I’m not sure what else could explain it.” 

Peter cocked his head in a silent question. 

“Oh come on, you can’t have missed it. Remember that day I scared you? With that silly clown mask? And then when I was able to punch, nay, break your nose? And all those times that you didn’t hear me calling you and I had to call more than once? None of that is normal for you. You’re usually hyperconscious of everything around you.” Tony knew he was rambling, but now that he’d started, all his worry was flowing out and he couldn’t help it. 

He didn’t quite realise how tense he was about all this until today. It wasn’t a surprise why, though. Peter’s senses were the most important part of his abilities. They were what kept him alive on the streets, and for the kid to not have it anymore was akin to him going back to a baseline human. 

At the end of his speech though, Peter reacted in a very unexpected way. His cheeks flamed bright red and he ducked his head, seemingly...embarrassed?

But why would he be embarrassed? Did he think Tony would make fun of him or something? He opened his mouth to dispel any such nonsense but Peter beat him to it. 

“Ah, that’s-that’s, you’ve, uh, there’s a misunderstanding,” Now the kid was burrowing the bottom half of his face into his shirt? What? “Nothing-uh, nothing’s wrong with my spidey-sense.” 

“Kid, I just gave you multiple examples of it not working as it should. I’m only bringing it up because I’m worried it’ll affect you during patrol,” he voiced his earlier thoughts. 

In front of his eyes, he saw Peter come out of his shirt, take a deep breath, and steel himself. Not that it did anything for his flushed cheeks, though. 

“Okay, so, here’s the thing,” he started in a hesitant voice, “My spidey-sense warns me when there’s danger around right? Everyone knows that. But you know that it’s much more complicated than that. It keeps up with much more than danger. Anything happening around me, I’m probably aware of it. Which obviously means a shitload of input, right? So I guess one way my body came up with to kind of, I don't know, decrease the load is by completely phasing out some things. You just happened to be one of them.” 

That did absolutely nothing to help, Tony decided after a few moments. 

“But why me?” he asked, baffled. What reason could there be for Peter to not even notice him anymore? Was it, by any chance, his mind’s way of not caring about him anymore? Just slowly giving up on him? Because, that would be pretty on point for how most of Tony’s interactions went with people. 

“You’re really gonna make me say it, aren't you?” Peter groaned lightly, his cheeks becoming impossibly redder. 

“Don’t know what ‘it’ is, kiddo, so yep,” Tony replied. 

“Ugh, alright. It’s because I feel safe around you. There. I said it,” he blurted it as if he couldn’t wait to get done with it and go hide in some random vent in the building.

“Uh. What?” Tony said dumbly, his mind not quite processing what was happening yet. 

“My brain associates you with safety. It doesn’t believe you can do me any harm, so it’s deemed it alright to shut off the extra sense when it comes to you. You’ve proven yourself more than enough, and well, think of it as a system taking up more processing power than it needs to, so you just cut back on some redundant codes so it doesn’t have to expend energy on that. Same way, my body doesn’t think it needs to be on its guard around you, so it’s stopped alerting me when you’re near.” 

“You and Aunt May are the only people who get past the spidey-sense,” he muttered in a much lower tone, “With everyone else, it’s the same. If you really don’t think my powers are fine, you can always ask literally anyone else to try what you did and see them fail.” 

At this point, Tony’s brain had decided to take a nice little nap right there. That was the only reason why he wasn’t able to think, right? 

It was definitely not the fact that the kid had placed him on the same level as his  _ Aunt May, the woman who’d literally raised him,  _ and sure, maybe it was a subconscious move, but it couldn’t have been all that subconscious if Peter was so aware about it. He couldn’t even begin to fathom the amount of trust he’d been given by this precious kid, didn’t know what to do with it. How do you react when a teenage vigilante who’s got the purest heart in all of Queens drops something like this on you? There was no Tedx for that. 

In the end, he decided to just lean forward and grab the spider-kid into a tight hug, trying to convey with his actions what his suddenly clogged throat couldn’t. 

_ You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, kid. And I love you so much, don’t you ever forget that.  _

**Author's Note:**

> um. yeah. awkward ending. i know. refer to aforementioned lack of sleep for context.  
> i'll see if i can come back and change it to sumn a bit more,,,uh heartfelt later? lets see
> 
> (oh oh oh also if uve read the previous part of this series, then know that im def working on a second part w all the reactions. its just,,,a work in progress rn, but its def coming along bois) 
> 
> peace out


End file.
